A lesson in humility, thank you Virgin.

[R36snowbound]

This evening, I was on the 5:45pm service from MEL to SYD.

Seated next to me in row 4 was a special lady, a lady who made me appreciate the things that us FF's often take for granted.

My neighbour during this flight was a lady who was totally blind and who had flown to Melbourne to attend a conference on how to teach braille to visually impaired kids. During her 2 days in Melbourne, she spoke in front of more than 400 people and could not see a single one of them.

On the flight, she spoke to me about her life and how she does not fly very often. As the flight was landing, I explained to her what was happening, why the different sounds, what you could see, why the pilot increases power just before the wheels touch the ground and the reverse thrust that comes from the engines, etc.

I found myself thinking imagine sitting in an airplane and not being able to see what was going on. Imagine a life in total darkness and just getting on with it.

The Virgin staff were great. They made sure she got her cup of tea, even guided her hand so that she could locate the cup on the tray table.

After this humbling experience, it really puts into perpesctive other issues that the us FF's face, such as the WI-Fi not working on board, our bag being last on the carousel, not having our preffered snack available or our flight being delayed by 15 minutes.

Thank you for the perspective VA, it was a great flight, I learnt a lot and it was a great experience to sit next to such an interesting pasenger, who never lets the little things get in her way.

 

[Simo]

Those people can be very inspiring to talk to.

 

[TheCityLane]

Not that it doesn't stop those little things being annoying at times, but it's always great to get some perspective like this every now and then. Encourages one to just get on with things.

 

[R36snowbound]

Not that it doesn't stop those little things being annoying at times, but it's always great to get some perspective like this every now and then. Encourages one to just get on with things.

Very true TheCityLane, such things are annoying, perspective goes along way.

If anybody else is lucky enough to be seated to such a remarkable and interesting person, you will soon forget that little benefits such as WIFI are even offered during the flight.

This was the first domestic flight that I have been on where I was actually wishing it was a longer flight.

 

[candyflip]

I sat next to an elderly South African woman from PER-MEL the other week - she was going MEL-Auckland later on, to meet with her daughter (w/2 kids) who had lost her husband through heart attack, aged just 47.

She lived alone in a retirement village (her husband dead), but really enjoyed the place, and of course South Africa, where she was born.
She told me she wished she'd had more than 2 children - both lived in other parts of the world (AUS/NZ), and she didn't want to die over there alone.
I think she's convinced me to have a few more!

I spent a good few hours chatting, but forgot to ask the one thing I really wanted to know:
....how does the average Sth African view Oscar Pistorius and the trial?

next time..